Consumer cross-category deal diversity

ABSTRACT

A system and method is provided for determining a portfolio of promotions from across a diverse mix of promotion categories. The diverse promotion portfolio may represent an inventory of promotions that are available for presenting to a consumer in a particular market. Also, a system and method is provided for determining a diverse group of promotions for presenting to a consumer. The diverse group of promotions may be determined based on whether a same or similar promotion was previously presented to the consumer.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/841,433, which was filed on Mar. 15, 2013, which claims the benefitof U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/702,431, filed Sep. 18, 2012, theentirety of each which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present description relates to offering promotions associated with aproduct or a service. This description more specifically relates to apromotion offering system for better ensuring the presentation of adiverse mix of promotions from across a plurality of promotioncategories to a consumer.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Merchants typically offer promotions to consumers from time to time inorder to generate more business. The promotions offered may be in theform of discounts, deals, rewards or the like. Oftentimes, a promotionaloffering may be presented to a consumer in the form of an electroniccorrespondence that is transmitted at certain times throughout a giventime period (e.g. throughout the day). In the past, the promotions thatwere selected for presentation to a consumer were selected manuallywithout the benefit of referencing pertinent data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An apparatus and method for analyzing electronic correspondences thatinclude one or more promotions is disclosed.

According to one aspect, a method is provided for including a diversityof promotions in multiple electronic correspondence, the methodincludes: considering accessing one or more promotions included in apreviously-sent electronic correspondence; accessing multiple promotionscontemplated for inclusion in a subsequent electronic correspondence;comparing taxonomy classification for at least one of the promotions inthe previously-sent electronic correspondence and one of the multiplepromotions contemplated for inclusion in the subsequent electroniccorrespondence in order to determine whether the at least one of thepromotions in the previously-sent electronic correspondence and the oneof the multiple promotions contemplated for inclusion in the subsequentelectronic correspondence has a same taxonomy classification; and inresponse to the same taxonomy classification, determining whether toremove the one of the multiple promotions contemplated for inclusion inthe subsequent electronic correspondence.

According to another aspect, an system is provided for including adiversity of promotions in multiple electronic correspondence, thesystem including: a memory storing processor-executable instructions;and a processor in communication with the memory. The processor isconfigured to execute the processor-executable instructions to: accessone or more promotions included in a previously-sent electroniccorrespondence; access multiple promotions contemplated for inclusion ina subsequent electronic correspondence; compare taxonomy classificationfor at least one of the promotions in the previously-sent electroniccorrespondence and one of the multiple promotions contemplated forinclusion in the subsequent electronic correspondence in order todetermine whether the at least one of the promotions in thepreviously-sent electronic correspondence and the one of the multiplepromotions contemplated for inclusion in the subsequent electroniccorrespondence has a same taxonomy classification; and in response tothe same taxonomy classification, determine whether to remove the one ofthe multiple promotions contemplated for inclusion in the subsequentelectronic correspondence.

According to yet another aspect, a method is provided for including adiversity of promotions within an electronic correspondence, the methodcomprising: accessing multiple promotions contemplated for inclusion inthe electronic correspondence, each of the multiple promotions includingan associated taxonomy classification; comparing the taxonomyclassification for at least two of the multiple promotions in order todetermine whether the at least two of the multiple promotions have asame taxonomy classification; and in response to determining that the atleast two of the multiple promotions have the same taxonomyclassification, determining to remove one of the at least two of themultiple promotions from inclusion in the electronic correspondence.

According to still another aspect, a system is provided for including adiversity of promotions within an electronic correspondence. The systemincluding: a memory storing processor-executable instructions; and aprocessor in communication with the memory. The processor is configuredto execute the processor-executable instructions to: access multiplepromotions contemplated for inclusion in the electronic correspondence,each of the multiple promotions including an associated taxonomyclassification; compare the taxonomy classification for at least two ofthe multiple promotions in order to determine whether the at least twoof the multiple promotions have a same taxonomy classification; and inresponse to determining that the at least two of the multiple promotionshave the same taxonomy classification, determine to remove one of the atleast two of the multiple promotions from inclusion in the electroniccorrespondence.

Other systems, methods, and features will be, or will become apparent toone with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures anddetailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems,methods, and features included within this description, be within thescope of the disclosure, and be protected by the following claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention may be better understood with reference to thefollowing drawings and description. Non-limiting and non-exhaustivedescriptions are described with reference to the following drawings. Thecomponents in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis insteadbeing placed upon illustrating principles. In the figures, likereferenced numerals may refer to like parts throughout the differentfigures unless otherwise specified.

FIG. 1 illustrates a representation of a network and a plurality ofdevices that interact with the network;

FIG. 2A illustrates a flow chart describing a process for accounting fora previous presentation of a same or similar promotion to a consumerwhen determining a selection of promotions for a subsequent presentationof one or more promotions to the consumer, according to someembodiments;

FIG. 2B illustrates a flow chart describing a process for accounting fora previous presentation of a same or similar promotion to a consumerwhen determining a selection of promotions for a subsequent presentationof one or more promotions to the consumer, according to someembodiments;

FIG. 2C illustrates a flow chart describing a process for adjustingpromotions that may be presented to a consumer based on the consumer'snew location, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram describing an overview of a processfor determining whether to include a promotion in an electroniccorrespondence based on a previous presentation of a same or similarpromotion;

FIG. 4 illustrates a table exemplifying promotion categories related toa range of values;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart describing a process for promoting thepresentation of a diverse mix of promotions across multiplecommunication channels; and

FIG. 6 is a general computer system, programmable to be a specificcomputer system, which may represent any of the computing devicesreferenced herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention as described herein may be embodied in a number ofdifferent forms. Not all of the depicted components may be required,however, and some implementations may include additional, different, orfewer components from those expressly described in this disclosure.Variations in the arrangement and type of the components may be madewithout departing from the spirit or scope of the claims as set forthherein. It should be noted that promotions and deals are recited in thisdisclosure to be understood as being interchangeable, unlessspecifically stated otherwise.

A promotion may include any type of reward, discount, coupon, credit,deal, voucher or the like used toward part (or all) of the purchase of aproduct or a service. The promotion may also include merchandise goodsthat are offered for sale. For instance, goods promotions may includeoffers for sale of clothing, electronic devices, school supplies,jewelry, sporting goods, kitchen goods, cosmetic goods and the like. Thepromotion may be offered as part of a larger promotion program, or thepromotion may be offered as a stand-alone one-time promotion.

In an effort to better distinguish and identify the promotion, thepromotion may be identified by one or more attributes, such as themerchant offering the promotion (e.g., “XYZ coffee shop”), the locationof the promotion, the amount or price range of the promotion, thecategory of the promotion (such as a restaurant promotion, a spapromotion, a travel promotion, a local promotion, etc.), thesub-category of the promotion (such as a Japanese restaurant, a Massagepromotion, a Caribbean cruise promotion, and a local fanner's marketpromotion, etc.), amount of discount offered by the promotion, time atwhich the promotion is likely to be purchased by a consumer (e.g., abreakfast meal promotion may have a greater likelihood of beingpurchased by a consumer in the morning time), time at which thepromotion is redeemable (e.g., a breakfast meal promotion may only beredeemable during breakfast hours), time or time period for which thepromotion is related to (e.g., a breakfast meal promotion is related toa morning time period), or the like. Any one of the described attributesmay then be used to define a corresponding promotion category.

Promotions may be selected for inclusion in an electronic correspondencebased on whether one or more similar promotions have been presented tothe consumer previously. By referencing whether similar promotions havebeen previously presented to the consumer, over-presentation of similarpromotions may be avoided; instead, the consumer may receive with adiverse mix of promotions across a plurality of promotion categoriesfrom which to choose.

Presenting the consumer with electronic correspondences that includesimilar promotions in consecutive, or nearly consecutive, time periodsthat are close together may cause the consumer to view the electroniccorrespondences as being repetitive and stale. This in turn may causethe consumer to avoid opening the emails in the future, which decreasesthe rate at which the consumer purchases promotions from the promotionsystem 100. Therefore, the presentation of similar promotions over arelatively short time period may negatively impact the probability theconsumer will purchase subsequent promotions.

In addition, although performance data may indicate that the consumerhas a tendency to purchase promotions from a certain promotion category(e.g., restaurant deals), to only present promotions from this promotioncategory may not result in the optimal conversion rate of purchases fromthe consumer. Therefore, providing a diverse mix of promotions fromacross different promotion categories in the electronic correspondencepresented to the consumer is desirable. By doing so, the probability theconsumer maintains an interest in the promotions within the electroniccorrespondence may increase, and the probability the consumer purchasesone or more of the promotions in the email may correspondingly increase.

In one example, different factors may be analyzed in order to provide aconsumer with the diverse mix of promotions. Factors include, but arenot limited to: taxonomy; merchant data; and consumer profile. Taxonomycomprises any classification of the promotion. As discussed below,examples of taxonomy include, but are not limited to:category/subcategory and deal types.

Further, the analysis may be applied to electronic correspondence in avariety of ways. Electronic correspondence may take the form of anemail, SMS text message, webpage inbox message, VOIP voice message,real-time webpage content presentation, mobile push notifications orother similar types of electronic correspondences where information is“pushed” onto a consumer. The analysis may be applied to the electroniccorrespondence in several respects, including inter-electroniccorrespondence and intra-electronic correspondence. Inter-electroniccorrespondence analysis comprises analyzing multiple electroniccorrespondence for a diverse mix of promotions. The multiple electroniccorrespondence may be of the same type (e.g., both e-mails) or may be ofdifferent types (e.g., one e-mail one SMS text message). Further, themultiple electronic correspondence may comprise 2, 3, or more in number.Moreover, the multiple electronic correspondence may be sentperiodically (such as daily) or may be sent a-periodically.Intra-electronic correspondence analysis comprises analyzing a singleelectronic correspondence for a diverse mix of promotions.

The system may examine inter-electronic correspondence according to oneor more factors, such as: the taxonomy of promotion(s) that the consumerreceived in the previous electronic correspondence (e.g., in one or moreprevious electronic correspondence) versus the promotions considered forinclusion in a subsequent electronic correspondence (e.g., anas-yet-to-be-sent electronic correspondence); the merchant(s) offeringthe promotion(s) included in the previous electronic correspondenceversus the merchant(s) considered for inclusion in the subsequentelectronic correspondence; and/or the purchase(s) that the consumer hasmade.

In a first type of taxonomy analysis, a determination is made as towhether a same category and/or subcategory is included in the previouselectronic correspondence and the subsequent electronic correspondence(e.g., examining whether the most recently sent electroniccorrespondence includes a same category or subcategory as the subsequentelectronic correspondence; examining whether the a second most recentlysent electronic correspondence includes a same category or subcategoryas the subsequent electronic correspondence; etc.) In the event that asame category and/or subcategory is included, the promotion contemplatedfor inclusion in the subsequent electronic correspondence may be removedand a different promotion may be selected. In one embodiment, theremoval of the promotion may be dependent on an amount of time betweenthe transmission of the previous electronic correspondence and theexpected transmission of the subsequent electronic correspondence. Inthe event that the amount of time is greater than a predetermined amountof time period (which may be the same across some or all of thecategories and/or subcategories), the promotion may be included in thesubsequent electronic correspondence.

The different promotion may be selected based on other criteria (such asbased on an estimated acceptance by the consumer, discussed below).Alternatively, or in addition, the different promotion may be selectedbased on the identified category or subcategory that was similar. Morespecifically, the different promotion may be selected so that thecategory or subcategory for the different promotion is separatedsufficiently from the identified category or subcategory. For example,the selection of the category or subcategory in the different promotionmay be at least a predetermined distance, such as measured by nodes ofthe multi-level hierarchy structure, so that the different promotion isconsidered distinguishable from the promotion previously presented.

In a second type of taxonomy analysis, a determination is made as towhich same category or subcategory is included in the previouselectronic correspondence and the subsequent electronic correspondence.The category or subcategory identified as the same between the previouselectronic correspondence and the subsequent electronic correspondencemay affect the analysis. For example, different categories orsubcategories may implicate different levels of diversity. Morespecifically, a promotion category of “restaurant” may allow for morefrequent viewings, whereas a promotion category of “boating” may allowfor less frequent viewings. In this regard, if a promotion in theprevious electronic correspondence and a promotion contemplated for thesubsequent electronic correspondence designate a “restaurant” category,the analysis may determine that the promotion contemplated for thesubsequent electronic correspondence may be included since the“restaurant” category allows for more frequent viewings. Conversely, ifthe promotion in the previous electronic correspondence and thepromotion contemplated for the subsequent electronic correspondencedesignate a “boating” category, the analysis may determine that thepromotion contemplated for the subsequent electronic correspondence notbe included since the “boating” category does not allow for as frequentviewings.

The frequency of the viewings for specific categories and subcategoriesmay be included in a data construct correlating the frequency to thecategory/subcategory. More specifically, the frequency may be manifestedin a time period correlated to the category and/or subcategory. In thisregard, the system may determine the amount of time between thetransmission of the previous electronic correspondence and the expectedtransmission of the subsequent electronic correspondence. In the eventthat the amount of time is greater than the time period correlated tothe category and/or subcategory, the promotion may be included in thesubsequent electronic correspondence. For example, the time periodassociated with the “restaurant” category may be 2 days. In the eventthat the amount of time between transmission of the previous electroniccorrespondence and transmission of the subsequent correspondence is 1day, the promotion may be removed.

In a first type of consumer profile analysis, the consumer profile maybe reviewed to determine whether the consumer purchased, within apredetermined time, a promotion from a same category or subcategory asthe promotion contemplated for the subsequent electronic correspondence.For example, the analysis may determine whether the consumer purchasedwithin the past day, the past week, the past month, etc. a promotionfrom category “X”. In the event that the contemplated promotion isassigned category “X”, the analysis may determine to reject inclusion ofthe contemplated promotion (or alternatively, determine to rejectinclusion if the consumer purchase was less than a predetermined numberof days).

In a second type of consumer profile analysis, a determination is madeas to which same category or subcategory is included in the contemplatedpromotion in the subsequent electronic correspondence and the customer'spurchase. The category or subcategory identified as the same between thecontemplated promotion in the subsequent electronic correspondence andthe consumer's purchase may affect the analysis. For example, differentcategories or subcategories may implicate different levels of diversity.More specifically, a promotion subcategory of “Lasik surgery” may allowfor less frequent viewing, whereas a promotion category of “restaurant”may allow for less frequent viewings. In this regard, if the consumerpurchased a promotion with the subcategory “Lasik surgery”, thecontemplated promotion that includes the subcategory “Lasik surgery” maynot be included in the subsequent electronic correspondence if the timeperiod between the purchase and the upcoming viewing of the subsequentpromotion is less than a predetermined time period (e.g., less than 1year). Conversely, if the consumer purchased a promotion with thecategory “restaurant”, the contemplated promotion that includes thecategory “restaurant” may be included in the subsequent electroniccorrespondence if the time period between the purchase and the upcomingviewing of the subsequent promotion is less than a differentpredetermined time period (e.g., less than 2 days). In this regard, theanalysis may account for more frequent purchases of promotions with the“restaurant” category than for promotions with the “Lasik surgery”subcategory.

In an alternate embodiment, the time period between a consumer'spurchase of a promotion from a specific category or subcategory and asubsequent presentation may be defined by the consumer's purchasinghabits. The consumer profile, which may include a history of purchasesby the consumer, may be analyzed to determine a frequency of purchases,such as a frequency of purchases correlated to a specific category orsubcategory. In this regard, the time period may be selected to match,or nearly match, the time period as measured from the consumer's pastpurchases. For example, if a consumer on average, purchases a restaurantpromotion once every week, the time period selected may be 1 week.

In a first type of merchant analysis, a determination is made as towhether a same merchant is included in the previous electroniccorrespondence and the subsequent electronic correspondence. In theevent that the same merchant is included, the promotion contemplated forinclusion in the subsequent electronic correspondence may be removed anda different promotion may be selected. The different promotion may beselected based on other criteria (such as based on an estimatedacceptance by the consumer, discussed below).

In a second type of merchant analysis, a determination is made as towhich same merchant is included in the previous electroniccorrespondence and the subsequent electronic correspondence. Themerchant identified as the same between the previous electroniccorrespondence and the subsequent electronic correspondence may affectthe analysis. More specifically, different merchants may implicatedifferent levels of diversity or frequency of presentation.

With regard to intra-electronic correspondence, the system may examinethe taxonomy of promotions. For example, the subsequent electroniccorrespondence includes a plurality of contemplated promotions, asdiscussed in more detail below. In the event that two promotions, bothcontemplated for inclusion in the subsequent electronic correspondence,include a same category or subcategory, the system may remove one of thetwo promotions. For example, both of the promotions may have associatedscores. In this regard, the promotion with the lower associated scoremay be removed.

As discussed in more detail below, the subsequent electroniccorrespondence may have “N” number of positions, where N may comprise 1,2, or more in number. An example of electronic correspondence withmultiple positions is illustrated in U.S. application Ser. No.13/839,786, hereby incorporated herein in its entirety. The system mayscore a multitude of promotions, and rank the multitude of promotionsbased on the scores. The taxonomy classification analysis may beperformed for the top “N” ranked promotions. In the event that two ofthe top “N” ranked promotions have the same taxonomy classification,another promotion from the multitude of promotions may be selected forfurther analysis. For example, the “N+1” ranked promotion may beexamined. Further description is provided below.

FIG. 1 illustrates an overview for a promotion system 100 configured tooffer promotions for promotion programs. The promotion system 100includes a promotion offering system 102, which communicates via one ormore networks 122 with consumers, such as consumer 1 (124) to consumer N(126), and with merchants, such as merchant 1 (118) to merchant M (120).The promotion offering system 102 also includes analytical model 104that is in communication with databases 110, 112, 114, 116.

The analytical model 104 may include one or more components forgenerating an electronic correspondence for including one or morepromotions for presentation to the consumer according to this invention.The electronic correspondence may be presented to the consumer bytransmission, or interactive display, of the electronic correspondencetaking the form of an email, SMS text message, webpage inbox message,VOIP voice message, real-time webpage content presentation, mobile pushnotifications or other similar types of electronic correspondences.

The electronic correspondence may include one or more promotions thathave been selected to better ensure the consumer is presented with adiverse mix of promotions from across difference promotion categories.The electronic correspondence may be generated to have one or more setpositions for assigning each of the one or more promotions that areincluded in the electronic correspondence. In addition, each positionwithin the electronic correspondence may be designated with a level ofdesirability. For example, positions that are closer to the top of theelectronic correspondence may be assigned a higher level of desirabilitythan positions that are lower down on the electronic correspondence.This is because the consumer that is viewing the electroniccorrespondence has a higher likelihood of viewing promotions that aredisplayed at the top of the electronic correspondence than promotionsthat are displayed closer to the bottom of the electroniccorrespondence. This may hold true for each of the different forms ofelectronic correspondences mentioned above. The consumer may open up anelectronic correspondence in the form of an email, and the consumer willbe more likely to view the promotions that are closer to the top of theemail than promotions that are closer to the bottom of the email.Similarly, the consumer may view an interactive display of promotions onan electronic correspondence in the form of a webpage, and the consumerwill be more likely to view the promotions that are closer to the top ofthe webpage than promotions that are closer to the bottom of thewebpage.

In order to take advantage of more desirable positions within theelectronic correspondence, promotions that have a higher score (e.g.,past conversion rate, predicted conversion rate, probability of aconsumer purchasing the promotion, or relevance of the promotion to theconsumer may be assigned to positions that are designated with higherlevels of desirability. For instance, the promotion with the highestscore may be assigned the position with the highest level ofdesirability at the top of the email. Conversely, the promotion with thelowest score may be assigned the position with the lowest level ofdesirability.

A promotion score may be calculated and assigned to a promotion in thepromotion system 100 by a scoring model of the analytical model 104. Thescoring model may be configured to predict the likelihood that theconsumer will accept a promotion that is offered to the consumerindependent of whether the consumer was previously presented with thesame or similar promotion. The scoring model may score a promotion, forexample, according to any one of the methods disclosed in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/411,502 and U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationNo. 61/644,352, both of which are incorporated by reference herein intheir entirety. Further, an example of a reimpression system isdisclosed in U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/675,769 and in U.S.application Ser. No. 13/838,874, both of which are incorporated byreference herein in their entirety.

The analytical model 104 may also include one or more components foranalyzing whether to include a promotion in an electronic correspondencebased on, at least in part, previous presentation(s) of one or more thesame or similar promotions to the consumer. Based on this analysis, theanalytical model 104 may determine whether to include the promotion inthe electronic correspondence. For instance, the analytical model 104may apply a correction factor to the promotion's score based on theanalysis of previous presentation(s) of the same or similar promotionsto the consumer. The modified promotion score may then be referenced todetermine whether to include the promotion in the electroniccorrespondence. Further description of this analysis is provided below.

Alternatively or in addition, the analytical model 104 may utilize theanalysis in order to determine a position within an electroniccorrespondence to assign each promotion included in the electroniccorrespondence. For instance, the promotion may be selected forinclusion in the electronic correspondence, and the analysis of whetherthe same or similar promotions have been previously presented to theconsumer may determine the position of the promotion within theelectronic correspondence. Again, a correction factor may be generatedand applied to the promotion's score based on the analysis of previouspresentation(s) of the same or similar promotions to the consumer. Themodified promotion score may then be referenced to adjust a position ofthe promotion within the electronic correspondence. Further descriptionof this analysis is provided below.

The analytical model 104 communicates with one or more databases thatare part of (or work in conjunction with) the promotion offering system102 such as a promotion programs database 110, consumer profilesdatabase 112, historical data database 114 and dynamic data database116. The analytical model 104 may access the databases 110, 112, 114 and116 in order to obtain performance data on the various promotions in thepromotion system 100 that have been offered to consumers in the market,both in the past and currently.

The promotion programs database 110 is configured to store datadetailing various promotions and promotion programs that are availablefor offer in the promotion offering system 102. In order to inputpromotion program information into the promotions program database 110,merchants may optionally communicate via the networks 122 with thepromotion offering system 102 to input the information detailing thevarious promotion program offerings.

The consumer profiles database 112 includes profiles and sub-profilesfor the consumers, consumer 1 (124) to consumer N (126), that areincluded in the promotion system 100. Each profile or sub-profileincludes one or more consumer attributes that describe the consumer. Theconsumer attributes may include, but are not limited to, the consumer'sname, consumer's age, consumer's location (such as the consumer's homeaddress and/or the consumer's work address), consumer's occupation,consumer's educational background, consumer's previously accepted and/orrejected promotion program offerings, consumer's gender and the like.

The consumer may additionally select one or more specificconsumer-focused deal types (DTs) for inclusion in the consumer'sprofile. The DTs may be defined in one of several ways. A discussion ofDTs is included in U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/695,857,incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

In one embodiment, DTs are defined as a taxonomy different fromcategories/subcategories. In particular, categories/subcategories areone type of taxonomy or classification, and DTs are another distincttype of taxonomy or classification.

In another embodiment, DTs are defined based on the structure of thetaxonomy. For example, categories/subcategories may be defined as ahierarchy with multiple layers. More specifically, thecategories/subcategories include at least two levels, one level definingcategories and sub-level(s) defining the subcategories (e.g., onesub-level includes subcategories and a further sub-level includessub-subcategories). In contrast, the DTs may be defined as a singlelayer without multiple levels. More specifically, the DTs may have ahorizontal relationship with one another, but not a verticalrelationship owing to the single layer hierarchy.

In still another embodiment, the DTs may be defined with respect to, orindependent of, categories and/or subcategories. In one aspect, thedefinition of the DTs may be dependent on a category and/or subcategory.For example, one of the DTs may comprise “adrenaline”. The DT for“adrenaline” may be defined based on a look-up table that correlates toparticular subcategories, such as the subcategory “hot air balloons”,the subcategory “skydiving”, the subcategory “scuba diving”, etc. Inthis way, the DTs may be defined based on multiple categories and/orsubcategories. In another aspect, the definition of the DTs may beindependent of category and/or subcategory. For example, the DTs may bemanually assigned. In this way, the assignment of the DTs is not basedon a direct correlation with categories or subcategories.

In yet another embodiment, the DTs may be based on one or more aspectsof the consumer to which the DT is assigned. For example, one or moreDTs may also be suggested to be associated with the consumer based onthe consumer's past behavior within the promotion system 100. In thisway, a DT is distinct from any one promotion category, and serves todefine one or more aspects of the consumer. More particularly, the DT isindicative of one or more aspects of the consumer, whereas thecategories/subcategories are indicative of one or more aspects of themerchant. For instance, a DT is indicative of a characteristic of theconsumer, such as a description of a personality or trait of theconsumer, a description of an interest or pursuit of the consumer,and/or a description of an activity or action of the consumer.

In still another embodiment, both the DTs and thecategories/subcategories are defined based on the merchant, but definedbased on different aspects of the merchant. As discussed above, forexample, the category of the promotion may comprise a restaurantpromotion, a spa promotion, a travel promotion, a local promotion, andthe respective sub-category of the promotion may comprise a Japaneserestaurant, a Massage promotion, a Caribbean cruise promotion, and alocal fanner's market promotion. In contrast, the DTs may include“family friendly”, which may comprise a “family friendly” restaurant,“family friendly” Japanese restaurant, etc. So that the DTs describe anaspect of the merchant which is separate from the category and/orsubcategory description.

In yet another embodiment, the DTs are distinguished fromcategories/subcategories in their application and/or use. For example,the DTs may be assigned to a promotion in a different way from theassigning of the category/subcategory of the promotion. As anotherexample, the DTs may be used in a different way from thecategory/subcategory in determining whether to present the promotion tothe consumer. More specifically, the category/subcategory may be used inone step (such as the initial estimate of the probability of acceptanceof the promotion) and the DTs may be used in another step (such as todetermine a correction factor), as discussed in more detail below.

A DT may include, for example, a food interest group, outdoors interestgroup, home improvement interest group, children's related interestgroup, pampering and leisure interest group, pet enthusiast's interestgroup, healthy life style interest group, extreme sports interest group,traveling interest group, music and concert interest group and carenthusiast interest group among others. The examples given for DT aremerely for illustration purposes. Other DTs are contemplated.

In order to use DTs for selecting promotions, the promotions may beassigned or associated with one or more DTs (such as by assigning a tagindicating an association to a corresponding DT). The promotion may beassociated with a DT either automatically or manually. For example, thepromotion offering system 102 may automatically assign a DT based on oneor more attributes descriptive of the promotion and one or moreattributes descriptive of the DT. More specifically, a promotion may beassociated with a DT if the promotion shares one or more same, orsimilar, attributes as the DT. In this way, the promotion offeringsystem 102 is able to tailor the presentation of promotions to theconsumer by selecting promotions that are tagged with one or more DTsthat match the DTs of the consumer, as described in more detail below.

The DTs that are selected by the consumer, or suggested by the promotionoffering system 102, may be incorporated into the consumer's profile.The associated DT information from the consumer profile may then bereferenced when determining one or more promotions to present to theconsumer, as described below.

The historical data database 114 includes information detailing the pastperformance of promotion offerings that have been presented in thepromotion offering system 102 in previous times. The historical datadatabase 114 may include, but is not limited to, rates of acceptances ofspecific promotions and promotion programs, attributes of consumers thataccepted or rejected specific promotion programs, times at whichprevious emails were reviewed by a consumer, and the like. Thehistorical data database 114 may also include historical performancedata for the promotions in the promotion system 100 that details revenuedata in the form of gross profits, gross sales or net profits obtainedfrom the purchase of promotions. Profits may be defined as a set amountthat is received for each promotion that is purchased by a consumer, apercentage of the value of a deal that is being offered by a purchasedpromotion, a percentage of the amount a consumer spends when a promotionis purchased, or some other amount that is agreed upon with a merchantfor a promotion that has been purchased. This historical performancedata may then be referenced as part of an analysis executed by theanalytical model 104 for determining a proposed portfolio of promotionstaken from a mix of promotion categories.

The dynamic data database 116 includes information detailing the pastperformance of a promotion program offering that is currently active inthe promotion offering system 102. So that, while a promotion programreferenced in the dynamic data database 116 is currently active, thedata stored in the dynamic data database 116 may pertain to includeperformance data of the active promotion program from a previous timeperiod.

Although FIG. 1 has been illustrated to show separate databases 110,112, 114 and 116, FIG. 1 has been illustrated for demonstrative purposesonly, and it is contemplated to have the databases 110, 112, 114 and 116arranged in any combination of one or more memories/storage units.

Any one or more of the databases 110, 112, 114, 116 may also include arepository of deals, such as disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No.13/460,745, incorporated by reference in its entirety. The repository ofdeals includes one or more promotions that may be available forselection to present to a consumer. When compared to the otherpromotions in the promotion programs database 110, the promotions in therepository of deals may be available for a prolonged period of time. Forinstance, whereas other promotions may typically have a shelf life of 2months before expiring, promotions in the repository of deals may beallowed to be available until a merchant expressly notifies thepromotion system 100 to cease offering the promotion. In this way, eventhough a particular type of promotion may not be found in the rest ofthe promotion inventory found in promotion programs database 110, thepromotion system 100 may rely on the repository of deals to consistentlyhave a collection of promotions from which to select from. In someembodiments, the repository of deals may be stored in any one of theother databases 112, 114, 116, or alternatively stored as part of aseparate database not illustrated.

In some embodiments, a promotion in the promotion inventory database 110may be part of a first repository of deals and featured during aninitial feature period. As part of the first repository of deals, thepromotion may be publicly available for selection and presentation to aconsumer in the promotion system 100 during the initial feature period.After the initial feature period passes, the promotion may be includedas part of a second repository of deals. However, not all promotionsthat pass their initial feature period need be selected for inclusion inthe second repository of deals. In one embodiment, the deals that areincluded in the second repository of deals are not publicly available bysome (or all) of the consumers.

In selecting a deal to present to the consumer, the analytical model 104may first examine deals from the first repository of deals (which arecurrently in the initial period). In the event that a score associatedwith a deal in the first repository is sufficient to present to theconsumer, the analytical model 104 may select the deal for presentation.However, in the event that the analytical model 104 does not find a dealin the first deal repository (e.g., the score for the deals in the firstdeal repository is below a predetermined threshold), the analyticalmodel 104 may examine deals in the second deal repository. In this waythe second repository of deals offers a supplemental inventory ofpromotions from which the promotion offering system 102 may selectpromotions for presentation to a consumer.

In some embodiments, the repository of deals may be comprised ofmultiple deal repositories. For instance, a first repository of dealsmay include promotions that are offered to consumers for a shorterperiod of time (such as up to 1 week) and a second repository of dealsmay include promotions that are offered to consumers for a longer periodof time (such as up to 6 months). In some embodiments, the secondrepository of deals may be stored in any one of the other databases 112,114, 116, or alternatively stored as part of a separate database notillustrated.

FIG. 2A illustrates a flow chart 200A describing an overview of aprocess for presenting a consumer with a diverse mix of promotions byreducing the number of same, or similar, promotions that are presentedto the consumer according to a first embodiment. The process describedby flow chart 200A is provided from the standpoint of selectingpromotions for inclusion into a current contemplated email, andanalyzing whether a same or similar promotion was previously presentedto the consumer. If a same or similar promotion was previously presentedto the consumer, then a correction factor is calculated that may beapplied when determining whether to include the same or similarpromotion in the contemplated email. Likewise, the process described inflow chart 200A may be applied to determine whether to include thepromotion in any electronic correspondence, such as responsive to asearch request from a consumer for promotions from the promotionprograms database 110.

At 201, it is determined whether a same or similar promotion as thecontemplated promotion being analyzed for inclusion in the contemplatedemail has been presented to the consumer at a previous time. If the sameor similar promotion has not been previously presented to the consumer,then the analysis ends and a correction factor is not accessed.

A promotion may be considered to be similar to the contemplatedpromotion if it belongs to a same promotion category, sub-category, orother definable promotion attribute as described above.

In addition or alternatively, a promotion may be considered to besimilar to the contemplated promotion if it is associated with a same DTas the contemplated promotion.

In addition or alternatively, a promotion may be considered to besimilar to the contemplated promotion if it is offered by the samemerchant as the contemplated promotion.

In addition or alternatively, a promotion may be considered to besimilar to the contemplated promotion if it belongs within a same valuerange. For example, promotions that belong to a same value range may beidentified as belonging to a same value range promotion category, suchthat each defined promotion value range corresponds to respectivepromotion category. A description of promotion value ranges is provided,for example, with reference to Table 4 in FIG. 4. Table 4 illustratespromotion value ranges (e.g., promotion categories) existing forpromotions that are in the value range of less than $15, between$15-$30, between $31-$50, between $51-$100, between $101-$150, between$151-$200, and the value range of between $201-$300. The value rangesillustrated in Table 4 are provided for exemplary purposes only. Otherpromotion categories that correspond to promotions that belong in othervalue ranges are contemplated. The value range of the promotion categorymay relate to a purchase price of the promotion, an amount of discountoffered by the promotion, or an amount of revenue receivable by thepromotion system 100 or merchant when the promotion is purchased by aconsumer. The methods for determining a similar promotion is providedfor exemplary purposes only, as other methods are contemplated.

In some embodiments, the contemplated promotion may automatically beselected for inclusion in the contemplated email if a same or similarpromotion is determined never to have been previously presented to theconsumer. In addition or alternatively, the contemplated promotion mayautomatically be refrained from inclusion in the electroniccorrespondence if it is determined that a same or similar promotion hasbeen previously presented to the consumer. In addition or alternatively,the contemplated promotion may automatically be refrained from inclusionin the electronic correspondence if it is determined that a same orsimilar promotion has been previously presented to the consumer within aset amount of time.

If it is determined at 201 that a same or similar promotion waspreviously presented to the consumer, then at 202 the previous time atwhich the consumer was presented the same or similar promotion isobtained. The previous time may be referenced as a particular date, timeof day (e.g. morning, afternoon or night) or other similar measure of atime.

In some embodiments, a status of the consumer during the previouspresentation of the same or similar promotion may be referenced. Forinstance, if the consumer is determined to have had an inactive statusat the previous time when the same or similar promotion was presented tothe consumer, then the previous time may be ignored. In other words, theanalytical model 104 may not consider the previous presentation of asame or similar promotion to have occurred during times when theconsumer is determined to have had an inactive status. In this way, eventhough the consumer was previously presented with a same or similarpromotion, because the consumer was inactive at the previous time, thisprevious presentation may be ignored. The inactive status may refer to atime, or time period, during which the consumer has not purchased apromotion from the promotion system 100, has not opened an electroniccorrespondence (e.g., email) transmitted by the promotion offeringsystem 102, has not visited or viewed a webpage of the promotion system100, has not logged into an electronic correspondence (e.g., webpage orwebpage portal) of the promotion system 100, has not clicked on apromotion that is displayed on a webpage of the promotion system 102,has not hovered a mouse point (or similar user input device) over asection of a webpage (e.g., over a promotion in order to obtaininformation regarding the promotion) of the promotion system 100, or anyother similar measure of inactivity with the promotion system 100. Ifthe consumer is determined to have been in an inactive status at theprevious time, the process may end or alternatively return to 201.

After the previous time information is obtained at 202, at 203 an amountof time since the consumer was presented the contemplated promotion atthe previous time is calculated. The amount of time may be a differencebetween the current time for presenting the contemplated email and theobtained previous time. The amount of time may be measured according toa number of hours, days, weeks, months or other similar units of time.For exemplary purposes, the amount of time may be two days such that twodays have passed since the contemplated promotion has been presented tothe consumer.

In some embodiments, after 203, it may be determined whether the amountof time is greater than a first predetermined amount (not illustrated).If the amount of time calculated at 203 is greater than the firstpredetermined amount, then the analysis ends and a correction factor isnot generated, or a correction factor having no effect may be generated(e.g. the correction factor is a multiplier equal to 1.0). Thus thepromotion may be included in the electronic correspondence even though asimilar promotion was previously presented to the consumer, if theprevious presentation of the similar promotion occurred longer than thefirst predetermined amount of time ago. In such embodiments, thepromotion offering system 102 is configured such that the previouspresentation of the same or similar promotion that occurred more thanthe first predetermined amount of time ago, is considered not to have aneffect on the consumer currently. For instance, the first predeterminedamount of time may be long enough such that any negative impact ofpresenting the same or similar promotion to the consumer may havedissipated. It may be assumed that the consumer has forgotten about theprevious presentation of the same or similar promotion that took placemore than the first predetermined amount of time ago.

In addition or alternatively, the promotion offering system 102 may beconfigured to assume that the consumer will be receptive once more toreceive the same or similar promotion after the first predeterminedamount of time has passed.

In some embodiments the first predetermined amount of time may be thesame across all categories, sub-categories and promotions associated tothe same DT. In other embodiments, each category, sub-category and DTmay have its own first predetermined amount of time corresponding to it.For example, the first predetermined amount of time corresponding to thesubsequent presentation of promotions from a same restaurant promotioncategory may be shorter when compared to the first predetermined timecorresponding to the subsequent presentation of promotions from a samemerchandise promotion category. This would indicate that consumers aremore likely to accept restaurant promotions that are presented inshorter intervals than they are merchandise promotions. In theseembodiments, the promotion offering system 102 contemplates that thetime it takes for the consumer to forget, or not be affected by, theprevious presentation of a same or similar promotion will vary dependingon whether the previous promotion is similar based on a same promotioncategory, sub-category or DT.

In some embodiments, after 203, it may be determined whether the amountof time is less than a second predetermined amount of time (notillustrated). If the amount of time calculated at 203 is less than thesecond predetermined amount, then the analysis ends and a correctionfactor is not generated, or a correction factor that will result in thepromotion not being included in the electronic correspondence isassigned (e.g., the correction factor is a multiplier equal to 0.0).Thus the promotion will not be included in the electronic correspondenceif the previous presentation of the similar promotion occurred less thanthe second predetermined amount of time ago. In such embodiments, thepromotion offering system 102 is configured such that the consumer isassumed not to be receptive of receiving similar promotion offeringsless than the second predetermined amount of time apart. Pastperformance data (either specific to the consumer or general for allconsumers) may indicate that the consumer rarely, or never, acceptedsimilar promotions that were presented to the consumer within the secondpredetermined amount of time. Each promotion category, sub-category orDT may be associated with a same or different second predeterminedamount of time. In this way, by determining a second predeterminedamount of time, the promotion offering system 102 can determine theminimum time period between presenting a consumer with a similarpromotion.

In some embodiments, the second predetermined amount of time may bedetermined for a certain promotion category, based on the pastperformance of promotions from sub-categories of the certain promotioncategory. For instance, the past performance data may indicate thatpromotions belonging to sub-categories of a first promotion categoryperformed at an acceptable level within an x amount of time. The pastperformance data may also indicate that promotions belonging tosub-categories of a second promotion category performed at an acceptablelevel within a y amount of time. The x amount of time may be less thanthe y amount of time. Under these exemplary circumstances, the secondpredetermined amount of time associated with the first promotioncategory may be shorter than the second predetermined amount of timeassociated with the second promotion category. In this way, a promotionthat is similar to a previously presented promotion by way of sharingthe same first promotion category may be presented to the consumer in ashorter amount of time than if the promotion is similar to a previouslypresented promotion by way of sharing the same second promotioncategory.

At 204, a determination is made as to whether another same or similarpromotion as the contemplated promotion has been presented to theconsumer at another previous time. If it is determined that another sameor similar promotion was offered to the consumer at another previoustime, this next previous time is obtained at 205. Following 205, theamount of time since the consumer was presented the other same orsimilar promotion is calculated at 203.

When it is determined at 204 that there are no remaining previous timesat which another same or similar promotion was presented to theconsumer, the process moves to 206. At 206, all of the previous times atwhich a same or similar promotion as the contemplated promotion waspresented to the consumer are considered when determining correctionfactor(s) for the contemplated promotion.

At 207 the correction factor may be applied to a score of contemplatedpromotion to calculate an updated score of the contemplated promotion.In this way, the updated score may be referenced when determiningwhether to select the contemplated promotion for inclusion in thecurrent contemplated email. Further description of this is provided withreference to FIG. 3.

For example, in some embodiments the correction factor may be determinedby referencing a look-up table including one or more correction factors.Each correction factor stored in the look-up table may correspond to anamount of time such that the appropriate correction factor determined at206 may be located in the look-up table by using the calculated amountof time from 203. The look-up table may, for example, be stored in anyone of the databases 110, 112, 114, and 116 described above.

In some embodiments, the correction factor may be determined at 206 bygenerating the correction factor based on the amount of time calculatedat 203. For example, as the amount of time since the previouspresentation of a similar promotion grows longer, the correction factormay be generated to have a value that will have less of an impact on thepromotion score (e.g., the correction value has a lower or higher valuedepending on if the correction value is a standalone value or percentagevalue, respectively). So that, as the amount of time that passes sincethe previous presentation of the similar promotion increases, thecorrection factor may be generated to have a value that will impact thepromotion score less. The correction factor that is applied to thepromotion score at 207 may have a lower impact on the promotion score bybeing a higher percentage value, thus maintaining more of the promotionscore value after applying the correction factor. The correction factormay also be applied as a standalone value to the promotion score, suchthat a lower correction factor value will have a lower impact on thepromotion score.

FIG. 2B illustrates a flow chart 200B describing an overview of aprocess for presenting a consumer with a diverse mix of promotions byreducing the number of same, or similar, promotions that are presentedto the consumer according to an alternate embodiment. The processdescribed by flow chart 200B is provided from the standpoint ofselecting promotions for inclusion into a current contemplated email,and analyzing whether a same or similar promotion was previouslypresented to the consumer. If a same or similar promotion was previouslypresented to the consumer, then a correction factor is calculated thatmay be applied when determining whether to include the same or similarpromotion in the contemplated email. Likewise, the process described inflow chart 200A may be applied to determine whether to include thepromotion in any electronic correspondence, such as responsive to asearch request from a consumer for promotions from the promotionprograms database 110.

At 210, it is determined whether a same or similar promotion as thecontemplated promotion being analyzed for inclusion in the contemplatedemail has been previously presented to the consumer at a previous time.If the same or similar promotion has not been previously presented tothe consumer, then the analysis ends and a correction factor is notaccessed. A promotion may be considered to be similar to thecontemplated promotion if it belongs to a same promotion category orsub-category.

In addition or alternatively, a promotion may be considered to besimilar to the contemplated promotion if it is associated with a same DTas the contemplated promotion.

In addition or alternatively, a promotion may be considered to besimilar to the contemplated promotion if it is offered by the samemerchant as the contemplated promotion.

In addition or alternatively, a promotion may be considered to besimilar to the contemplated promotion if it belongs within a same valuerange, as described above. The methods for determining a similarpromotion is provided for exemplary purposes only, as other methods arecontemplated.

In some embodiments, the contemplated promotion may automatically beselected for inclusion in the contemplated email if a same or similarpromotion is determined never to have been previously presented to theconsumer. In addition or alternatively, the contemplated promotion mayautomatically be refrained from inclusion in the electroniccorrespondence if it is determined that a same or similar promotion hasbeen previously presented to the consumer. In addition or alternatively,the contemplated promotion may automatically be refrained from inclusionin the electronic correspondence if it is determined that a same orsimilar promotion has been previously presented to the consumer within aset amount of time.

If it is determined at 210 that a same or similar promotion waspreviously presented to the consumer, then at 211 the previous time atwhich the consumer was presented the same or similar promotion isobtained. The previous time may be referenced as a particular date, timeof day (e.g. morning, afternoon or night) or other similar measure of atime.

In some embodiments, a status of the consumer during the previouspresentation of the same or similar promotion may be referenced. Forinstance, if the consumer is determined to have had an inactive statusat the previous time when the same or similar promotion was presented tothe consumer, then the previous time may be ignored. In other words, theanalytical model 104 may not consider a previous presentation of a sameor similar promotion to have occurred during times when the consumer isdetermined to have had an inactive status. In this way, even though theconsumer was previously presented with a same or similar promotion,because the consumer was inactive at the previous time this previouspresentation may be ignored. The inactive status may refer to a time, ortime period, during which a consumer has not purchased a promotion fromthe promotion system 100, has not opened an electronic correspondence(e.g., email) transmitted by the promotion offering system 102, has notvisited or viewed an electronic correspondence (e.g., webpage) of thepromotion system 100, has not logged into an electronic correspondence(e.g., webpage or webpage portal) of the promotion system 100, has notclicked on a promotion that is displayed on a webpage of the promotionsystem 102, has not hovered a mouse point (or similar user input device)over a section of a webpage (e.g., over a promotion in order to obtaininformation regarding the promotion) of the promotion system 100, or anyother similar measure of inactivity with the promotion system 100. Ifthe consumer is determined to have been in an inactive status at theprevious time, the process may end or alternatively return to 210.

After the previous time information is obtained at 211, at 212 an amountof time since the consumer was presented the contemplated promotion atthe previous time is calculated. The amount of time may be a differencebetween the current time for presenting the contemplated email and theobtained previous time. The amount of time may be measured according toa number of hours, days, weeks, months or other similar units of time.For example, the amount of time may be two days such that two days havepassed since the contemplated promotion has been presented to theconsumer.

At 213, it is determined whether the amount of time is greater than afirst predetermined amount. If the amount of time calculated at 203 isgreater than the first predetermined amount, then the promotion isincluded in the electronic correspondence at 214. The promotion isincluded in the electronic correspondence even though a similarpromotion was previously presented to the consumer, if the previouspresentation of the similar promotion occurred longer than the firstpredetermined amount of time ago. The promotion offering system 102 isconfigured such that the previous presentation of the same or similarpromotion that occurred more than the first predetermined amount of timeago may be considered not to have an effect on the consumer currently.For instance, the first predetermine amount of time may be long enoughsuch that any negative impact for presenting the same or similarpromotion to the consumer may have passed. It may be assumed that theconsumer has forgotten about the previous presentation of the same orsimilar promotion that took place more than the first predeterminedamount of time ago.

In addition or alternatively, the promotion offering system 102 may beconfigured to assume that the consumer will be receptive once more toreceive the same or similar promotion after the first predeterminedamount of time has passed.

In some embodiments the first predetermined amount of time may be thesame across all categories, sub-categories and promotions associated tothe same DT. In other embodiments, each category, sub-category and DTmay have its own first predetermined amount of time corresponding to it.For example, the first predetermined amount of time corresponding to thesubsequent presentation of promotions from a same restaurant promotioncategory may be shorter when compared to the first predetermined timecorresponding to the subsequent presentation of promotions from a samemerchandise promotion category. This would indicate that consumers aremore likely to accept restaurant promotions that are presented inshorter intervals than they are merchandise promotions. In theseembodiments, the promotion offering system 102 contemplates that thetime it takes for the consumer to recover from the previous presentationof a same or similar promotion will vary depending on the whether theprevious promotion is similar based on a same promotion category,sub-category or DT.

The first predetermined amount of time may be generated based onhistorical performance data. The performance data may be for allpromotions historically in the promotion system 100. In addition oralternatively, the performance data may be further specified to beaccessed from promotions sharing a same promotion category,sub-category, DT or other definable promotion attribute as the promotionbeing considered for inclusion in the electronic correspondence. Inaddition or alternatively, the performance data may be further specifiedto be accessed from those promotions that belong to sub-categoriesassociated to the promotion category of the promotion currently beingconsidered for inclusion in the electronic correspondence.

The actual performance data that is accessed may identify an amount oftime that passes between a same, or similar, promotion being purchasedby a consumer in the promotion system 100.

The time information may then be averaged to generate the firstpredetermined amount of time. In addition or alternatively, the firstpredetermined amount of time may be generated to be a median of theaccessed times. In addition or alternatively, the first predeterminedamount of time may be generated to be a local maximum of the accessedtimes, such that the first predetermined amount of time is equal to thelongest amount of time between a same or similar promotion beingpurchased by a consumer. In addition or alternatively, the firstpredetermined amount of time may be generated to be a local minimum ofthe accessed times, such that the first predetermined amount of time isequal to the shortest amount of time between a same or similar promotionbeing purchased by a consumer. In addition or alternatively, the firstpredetermined amount of time may be generated to identify a time amountthat passes between the presentations of same or similar promotionsbefore the performance of the subsequent presentation of the same orsimilar promotion surpasses a certain threshold. The performance may bemeasured as a rate of purchases of subsequent promotions, revenue earnedfrom the purchase of subsequent promotions, and other similar methodsfor defining the performance of presenting promotions to consumers inthe promotion system 100. The methods provided for generating the firstpredetermined amount of time is provided for exemplary purposes only.Other methods are contemplated.

If the amount of time is not greater than the first predetermined amountof time, then at 215 it is determined whether the amount of time is lessthan a second predetermined amount of time. If the amount of timecalculated at 212 is less than the second predetermined amount, then thepromotion is not included in the electronic correspondence at 216. Thusthe promotion will not be included in the electronic correspondence ifthe previous presentation of the similar promotion occurred less thanthe second predetermined amount of time ago. The promotion offeringsystem 102 is configured such that the consumer may be assumed not to bereceptive of receiving similar promotion offerings less than the secondpredetermined amount of time apart.

The second predetermined amount of time may be generated based onhistorical performance data. The performance data may be for allpromotions historically in the promotion system 100.

In addition or alternatively, the performance data may be furtherspecified to be accessed from promotions sharing a same promotioncategory, sub-category, DT or other definable promotion attribute as thepromotion being considered for inclusion in the electroniccorrespondence. In this way, each promotion category, sub-category or DTmay be associated with a same or different second predetermined amountof time.

In addition or alternatively, the performance data may be furtherspecified to be accessed from those promotions that belong tosub-categories associated to the promotion category of the promotioncurrently being considered for inclusion in the electroniccorrespondence.

The actual performance data that is accessed may identify an amount oftime that passes between a same, or similar, promotion being purchasedby a consumer in the promotion system 100.

The time information may then be averaged to generate the secondpredetermined amount of time. In addition or alternatively, the secondpredetermined amount of time may be generated to be a median of theaccessed times. In addition or alternatively, the second predeterminedamount of time may be generated to be a local maximum of the accessedtimes, such that the second predetermined amount of time is equal to thelongest amount of time between a same or similar promotion beingpurchased by a consumer. In addition or alternatively, the secondpredetermined amount of time may be generated to be a local minimum ofthe accessed times, such that the second predetermined amount of time isequal to the shortest amount of time between a same or similar promotionbeing purchased by a consumer. In addition or alternatively, the secondpredetermined amount of time may be generated to identify a time amountthat passes between the presentations of same or similar promotionsbefore the performance of the subsequent presentation of the same orsimilar promotion surpasses a certain threshold. The performance may bemeasured as a rate of purchases of subsequent promotions, revenue earnedfrom the purchase of subsequent promotions, and other similar methodsfor defining the performance of presenting promotions to consumers inthe promotion system 100. The methods provided for generating the secondpredetermined amount of time is provided for exemplary purposes only.Other methods are contemplated.

In some embodiments, the second predetermined amount of time may bedetermined for a certain promotion category, based on the pastperformance of promotions from sub-categories of the certain promotioncategory. For instance, the past performance data may indicate thatpromotions belonging to sub-categories of a first promotion categoryperformed at an acceptable level within an x amount of time. The pastperformance data may also indicate that promotions belonging tosub-categories of a second promotion category performed at an acceptablelevel within a y amount of time. The x amount of time may be less thanthe y amount of time. Under these exemplary circumstances, the secondpredetermined amount of time associated with the first promotioncategory may be shorter than the second predetermined amount of timeassociated with the second promotion category. In this way, a promotionthat is similar to a previously presented promotion by way of sharingthe same first promotion category may be presented to the consumer in ashorter amount of time than if the promotion is similar to a previouslypresented promotion by way of sharing the same second promotioncategory.

In this way, the second predetermined amount of time may be arepresentation of a minimum time period between presenting a consumerwith a similar promotion in order to obtain an acceptable level ofperformance.

If the amount of time is determined not to be less than the secondpredetermined amount of time at 215, then the process described by flowchart 200B may proceed to, for example, 206 illustrated in FIG. 2A.

FIG. 2C illustrates a flow chart 200C describing an overview of aprocess for determining whether a consumer has changed a location, andadjusting the generation of promotions for future presentation to theconsumer accordingly. For example, the consumer may update theconsumer's profile to include a new consumer location, or to update adefault consumer location with a new default consumer location. The newconsumer location may then be referenced when selecting promotions forinclusion in a future electronic correspondence to be presented to theconsumer.

As another example, the consumer may be interacting with a searchprotocol on a webpage of the promotion system 100, and the consumer mayindicate in the consumer's search criteria input that the search resultsare to consider a specific location. Therefore promotions in the searchresults that are found to be related to the specific location may thenbe given a higher search result placement (e.g., placed higher in thelist of promotions from the search results). The closer a promotion fromthe search results is found to be located to the specific location, thehigher up the promotion may be featured amongst the promotions in thesearch results.

As another example, the consumer may be interacting with a searchprotocol on a webpage of the promotion system 100, and the searchresults to the consumer's search criteria input may consider a locationidentified in the consumer's profile (e.g., default location or otherlocation of interest identified in the consumer's profile). Thereforepromotions in the search results that are found to be related to alocation identified in the consumer's profile may then be given a highersearch result placement (e.g., placed higher in the list of promotionsfrom the search results). The more locations identified in theconsumer's profile that a promotion from the search results is found tobe related to may result in the promotion being featured higher upamongst the promotions in the search results.

According to another example, the promotion offering system 102 mayidentify a consumer's new location by identifying an IP address fromwhich the consumer is accessing the promotion system.

In at least these ways, the process described by flow chart 200C may beunderstood to be taken from the standpoint of the promotion offeringsystem identifying a location of interest of the consumer, and adjustinga future presentation of promotions based on the identified location ofinterest. The process described by flow chart 200C may also beunderstood to be taken from the standpoint of the consumer interactingwith a search protocol on a webpage of the promotion system 100, whereone of the inputs into a search request on the search protocol mayinclude a location of interest of the consumer.

At 220, it is determined whether the consumer has changed or indicated anew location. According to a first embodiment, the consumer's locationmay have changed based on the consumer identifying in the consumer'sprofile that the consumer's location has changed to a new location,where the new location may replace a default location. In addition oralternatively, the consumer may identify an additional new location ofinterest in the consumer's profile.

According to a second embodiment, the new location may be input as partof the consumer's search criteria input on a search protocol of, forexample, a webpage associated with the promotion system 100. Forexample, the consumer may input search criteria searching for apromotion, where the search criteria additionally includes a locationcriteria requesting search results that are within a set distance fromthe new location. In addition, the consumer may input search criteriathat includes a location criteria requesting search results that arerelated to the new location. For example, the consumer may input searchcriteria requesting restaurant promotions that are related to a tropicalvacation location (e.g., Thailand) of interest to the consumer. Thesearch results may then additionally be focused on Thailand, such asreturning Thai food restaurants, promotions that are available inThailand, and travel promotions to Thailand.

According to a third embodiment, the new location may be identified bythe promotion offering system 102 based on, for example, an IP addressof the device from which the consumer accesses the promotion system 100.The consumer's location when accessing the promotion system may also beobtained via other similar IP geolocation technology that utilizes thenetwork(s) 122.

The methods for determining a new location for the consumer is providedfor exemplary purposes only, other methods are contemplated.

If there is no new location detected at 220, the process ends. However,if a new location for the consumer is detected at 220, then at 221 thenew location is obtained at 221.

At 222, the new location for the consumer is referenced in order toselect promotions that will be included in an electronic correspondenceto be presented to the consumer.

According to the first and third embodiments, in cases where theelectronic correspondence is of a type that is generated by thepromotion offering system 102 (e.g., email, SMS message) and notrequested by the consumer (e.g., presentation of search results from theconsumer's search criteria input into a search protocol on a webpageassociated with the promotion system 100), the inventory of promotionsfrom which the analytical model 104 selects one or more promotions toinclude in the electronic correspondence may be limited to promotionsthat are within a set distance from the new location determined at 220,or promotions that are otherwise related to the new location determinedat 220. For example, if the new location is a known vacation location,the inventory of promotions from which the analytical model 104 willreference when selecting promotions for the electronic correspondence tobe presented to the consumer may be related to promotions that arerelated to vacations. This may include promotions from a merchandisegoods promotion category, where the merchandise goods are related to thevacation location (e.g., suntan lotion and swimwear if the vacationlocation is a tropical warm weather vacation location, and ski-wear andsnowboards if the vacation location is a winter cold weather location).

Also according to the first and third embodiments, the new locationdetermined at 220 may be referenced by the analytical model 104 in thecase where the electronic correspondence is a search result presentationto the consumer that utilizes a search protocol on a webpage of thepromotion system 100. For instance, the new location in the consumer'sprofile may be implicitly referenced by the analytical model 104 whengenerating a search result presentation to the consumer's search input.So unlike the third embodiment where the consumer expressly inputs thenew location of interest into the search protocol, according to thefirst and third embodiments, the new location of the consumer may bereferenced by the analytical model 104 regardless of whether theconsumer expressly inputs the new location as part of the search inputcriteria. For example if the consumer inputs a search criteria searchingfor a restaurant promotion, the analytical model 104 may additionallyfocus the search results on restaurants that are within a set locationfrom the new location that is determined at 220 via the consumer'sprofile or via IP address lookup. The analytical model 104 may, forexample, also additionally focus the search results for the consumer'ssearch criteria for a restaurant to focus on restaurants that arerelated to the new location. For instance, if the new location islocated in China, the search results may be focused on Chineserestaurants, that may or may not be located within a set distance fromthe new location or another location associated with the consumer.

According to the second embodiment, the search results that arepresented to the consumer in response to the consumer's search criteriamay be selected from an inventory of promotions that is limited topromotions that are within a set distance from the new locationdetermined at 220, or promotions that are otherwise related to the newlocation determined at 220. For example, if the consumer's searchcriteria is a search for a restaurant, and the new location is a knownvacation location, the analytical model 104 may present search resultsthat are focused on promotions that are related to vacations. This mayinclude promotions from a merchandise goods promotion category, wherethe merchandise goods are related to the vacation location (e.g., suntanlotion and swimwear if the vacation location is a tropical warm weathervacation location, and ski-wear and snowboards if the vacation locationis a winter cold weather location). In addition or alternatively, thesearch results may be arranged such that promotions from the searchresults that are closer to the new location are featured higher thanpromotions from the search results that are further away from the newlocation. In addition or alternatively, the search results may bearranged such that promotions from the search results that are relatedto the new location are featured higher than promotions that are notrelated to the new location.

At 223, a determination is made as to whether the consumer has anothernew location that can be referenced. The new location may be indicatedby the consumer or determined by the promotion offering system 102, asdescribed above.

If the consumer is determined to have another new location forconsideration at 223, then the consumer's new location is obtained at224. And the process at 222 is repeated for the consumer's new locationobtained at 224.

FIG. 3 illustrates flow diagram 300 describing an overview of a processfor determining whether to include a contemplated promotion within acontemplated email based on the correction factor calculated from theprocess described by flow chart 300.

At 301, a contemplated promotion and a contemplated consumer forreceiving the contemplated promotion are selected. Attributes of thecontemplated consumer and the contemplated promotion are extracted.Examples of consumer attributes and promotion attributes, which are notexhaustive, are provided throughout this description.

At 302, the extracted attributes of the contemplated consumer and thecontemplated promotion are used in order to score the contemplatedpromotion. The score for the contemplated promotion may be an indicationof a probability the contemplated consumer will purchase thecontemplated promotion. Once the contemplated promotion is scored, adetermination may be made as to whether to include the contemplatedpromotion in the contemplated email. This determination may be madebased on an analysis comparing the score of the contemplated promotionagainst the scores for other promotions included in the contemplatedemail. If the score indicates that the contemplated promotion is one ofthe top promotions amongst a set number of promotions that are to beincluded in the contemplated email, the contemplated promotion may beincluded in the contemplated email. Alternatively, the contemplatedpromotion may be included in the contemplated email if the contemplatedpromotion's score is greater than a set value. In some embodiments, ifthe contemplated promotion is found to be similar to a promotion alreadyincluded in the contemplated email, only the promotion with the higherscore will be included.

At 303, an analysis that considers how a previous presentation of a sameor similar promotion as the contemplated promotion is processed. Thisanalysis may be described by flow chart 300 described previously. Fromthis analysis, a correction factor may be accessed. The correctionfactor may then be applied to the score of the contemplated promotionobtained prior at 302. After the correction factor is applied to thescore of the contemplated promotion, a new updated promotion score ofthe contemplated promotion is obtained. Based on this updated score, thedetermination of whether to include the contemplated promotion in thecontemplated email may be reassessed. For instance, if the correctionfactor brings the score of the contemplated promotion down, thecontemplated promotion may lose its spot in the contemplated email.Conversely, if the correction factor brings the score of thecontemplated promotion up, the contemplated promotion may gain a spot inthe contemplated email.

Although not specifically illustrated in flow chart 300, an optionalanalysis may be added following the application of the correctionfactor(s), or at any time following the generation of the correctionfactor(s). This optional analysis applies an added penalty to thecorrection factor(s) generated during the process described in flow 300.The added penalty is applied to account for the assumption thatconsumers become more receptive to purchasing promotions as the timebetween the presentations of a same or similar promotion increases. Inthis way, the penalty will decrease as the time between presentations ofthe same or similar promotion increases. The penalty may be appliedeither to the correction factor calculated during the processillustrated by flow chart 300, or the penalty may be applied to generatea new adjusted score for the contemplated promotion at 303.

The present disclosure describes presenting an electronic correspondencethat includes one or more promotions to the consumer across a pluralityof different communication channels. For example, the electroniccorrespondence may be in the form of an email that includes one or morepromotions for presentation to the consumer that is transmitted to theconsumer via an email communication channel.

As another example, the electronic correspondence may be in the form ofa presentation of search results corresponding to a search criteriainputted by the consumer into a search protocol on a webpage type ofcommunication channel.

Another example may be a mobile application type of communicationchannel. For a mobile application type of communication channel, theconsumer may obtain a mobile application onto a device for executing themobile application. The mobile application may allow the consumer toaccess and interact with the promotion system 100. For instance, themobile application may be executed on the device in order to allow theconsumer to receive electronic correspondences on the device, and alsoallow the consumer to search for promotions in the promotion system 100on the device. The mobile application may be natively installed on thedevice, or may alternatively be downloaded on the device from anexternal server. The device may be a mobile device communicationsdevice.

The three types of communication channels described above are providedfor exemplary purposed only, as other types of communication channelsare also contemplated.

Although the present invention has been described such that theconsumer's interactions within each type of communication channel areindependent of each other, the present invention also contemplates theconsumer's interactions on one communication channel affecting theconsumer's experience on another communication channel.

For instance, the promotion offering system 102 may have a goal ofpresenting the consumer with a diverse mix of promotions across multiplecommunication channels, up to all available communication channels. Inthis way, a determination that the consumer is not being presented witha diverse mix of promotions in one communication channel may prompt thepromotion offering system 102 (e.g., the analytical model 104) to focuson presenting the consumer with a diverse mix of promotions via one ormore other available communication channels. For instance, if theanalytical model 104 determines that the consumer has been presentedpromotions via the email communication channel with a low level ofdiversity across promotion categories, sub-categories, DTs or otherdefinable promotion attribute, the analytical model 104 may make up forthis lack of diversity in the email communication channel by promotingdiversity of promotions in another communication channel (e.g., searchresults via webpage communication channel). Further description of thisaspect of the present invention is provided below with reference to FIG.5.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart 500 describing a process for promotingthe presentation of a diverse mix of promotions across multiplecommunication channels.

At 501, a measurement of promotion diversity corresponding to theconsumer for a given communication channel is generated. The promotiondiversity measurement may measure diversity according to a number ofdifferent methods. In one embodiment, the promotion diversitymeasurement generated at 501 may reference the number of promotions thathave been purchased by the consumer across promotion categories,sub-categories, DTs or other definable promotion attribute for a givencommunication channel. For example, the promotion diversity measurementmay identify the number of promotions, from across promotion categories,sub-categories, DTs or other definable promotion attribute, that werepurchased by the consumer resulting from the consumer viewing an emailpresented via the email communication channel. The past purchase historyof the consumer may be obtained by accessing one or more of thedatabases 110, 112, 114, 116 or a repository of deals as describedabove.

In another embodiment, the promotion diversity measurement generated at501 may identify the number of promotions that have been viewed by theconsumer across promotion categories, sub-categories, DTs or otherdefinable promotion attribute for a given communication channel. Forexample, the promotion diversity measurement may reference the number ofpromotions, from across promotion categories, sub-categories, DTs orother definable promotion attribute, that have been viewed by theconsumer resulting from the consumer opening an email presented via theemail communication channel. Data identifying emails that have beenopened by the consumer, and correspondingly the promotions that wereincluded in the opened emails, may be accessed from data stored in oneor more of the databases 110, 112, 114, 116 or a repository of deals asdescribed above.

In the context of the consumer interacting with a webpage associatedwith the promotion system 100, a promotion displayed on the webpage maybe considered to be viewed when the consumer clicks on the promotion.Clicking on the promotion, for example, may navigate the consumer toanother webpage that provides a more detailed description of thepromotion. Also in the context of the consumer interacting with awebpage associated with the promotion system 100, a promotion displayedon the webpage may be considered to be viewed when the consumer hovers amouse pointer (or other navigation tool displayed on a display screenfor navigating the webpage) over the promotion for a set amount of time.Also in the context of the consumer interacting with a webpageassociated with the promotion system 100, a promotion displayed on thewebpage may be considered to be viewed when the consumer navigates backto the webpage displaying the promotion a set number of times.

According to another example, the promotion diversity measurement mayidentify the number of promotions, from across promotion categories,sub-categories, DTs or other definable promotion attribute, presented tothe consumer resulting from the presentation of search results to asearch request input by the consumer via the webpage communicationchannel. Data identifying promotions that have been presented to theconsumer as search results via the webpage communication channel may beaccessed from one or more of the databases 110, 112, 114, 116 or arepository of deals as described above.

In another embodiment, the promotion diversity measurement generated at501 may reference the number of promotions that have been presented tothe consumer across promotion categories, sub-categories, DTs or otherdefinable promotion attribute for a given communication channel. Forexample, the promotion diversity measurement may reference the number ofpromotions, from across promotion categories, sub-categories, DTs orother definable promotion attribute, that have been presented to theconsumer in an email that has been transmitted to the consumer via theemail communication channel. A presentation of a promotion need not havebeen viewed by the consumer. For example, an email including promotionsmay have been presented to the consumer by being transmitted to theconsumer, but may not have been viewed by the consumer if the consumerhas not opened the email. Data identifying promotions that have beenpresented to the consumer via a communication channel may be accessedfrom one or more of the databases 110, 112, 114, 116 or a repository ofdeals as described above.

The actual promotion diversity measurement may be represented by apromotion diversity score. The promotion diversity score, for example,may be a standard deviation measurement taken against a standarddistribution of promotions. For instance, a predetermined standarddistribution of promotions from across a diverse mix of promotioncategories, sub-categories, DTs or other definable promotion attributemay be set for each type of communication channel. The predeterminedstandard distribution of promotions may be the same, or different,across each type of communication channel.

In this way, the promotion diversity score for each communicationchannel may be generated by referencing the distribution of promotionspurchased by the consumer in a given communication channel and measuringthe standard deviation of the consumer's purchased promotions in thegiven communication channel against the respective predeterminedstandard distribution for the given communication channel.

The promotion diversity score for a given communication channel may alsobe generated by measuring the standard deviation of the consumer'sviewed promotions in the given communication channel against therespective predetermined standard distribution for the givencommunication channel.

The promotion diversity score for a webpage communication channel may begenerated by measuring the standard deviation of the promotionspresented to the consumer as search results in the webpage communicationchannel against the respective predetermined standard distribution forthe webpage communication channel.

The promotion diversity score for a given communication channel may alsobe measured by taking the standard deviation of the promotions that havebeen presented to the consumer in the given communication channelagainst the respective predetermined standard distribution for the givencommunication channel.

In at least these ways, the promotion diversity score may be a standarddeviation measurement that compares promotions that have been purchased,viewed, presented by/to the consumer against a standard distribution ofpromotions for a respective communication channel.

A promotion diversity score may be considered to be high if it surpassesa set standard deviation measurement that is measured according to atleast one of the methods described above. A promotion diversity scoremay be considered to be low if it falls below a set standard deviationthat is measured according to at least one of the methods describedabove.

At 502, a determination is made as to whether there is anothercommunication left to consider. If another communication channel is leftto consider, then at 503 the next available communication channel isconsidered and a measurement of promotion diversity corresponding to theconsumer is generated for the next communication channel.

When all of the communication channels have been considered, at 504 thepromotion diversity measurements for each of the consideredcommunication channels are analyzed against each other. For instance,the promotion diversity score that is generated for each communicationchannel considered during the process of flow chart 500 may be comparedagainst each other. By analyzing the promotion diversity measurementsfor each considered communication channel, a comparative level ofpromotion diversity may be determined at 504.

By 505, the promotion diversity measurement for each of the consideredcommunication channels is known from 504 and may be referenced inpromoting promotion diversity across each communication channel. In thisway, if the promotion diversity measurements indicate that promotiondiversity is low in one communication channel, the lack of promotiondiversity in the one communication channel may be made up by increasingthe future promotion diversity in another communication channel at 505.

For instance, if the promotion diversity score of the emailcommunication channel indicates that the consumer has been presentedpromotions via the email communication channel with a low level ofpromotion diversity, the analytical model 104 may promote promotiondiversity in another communication channel (e.g., webpage communicationchannel) by increasing the promotion diversity in the othercommunication channel. In the case of the webpage communication channel,the promotion diversity in the webpage communication channel may beincreased by presenting more promotions from promotion categories,sub-categories, DTs or other definable promotion attribute that is foundto be lacking in the email communication channel.

As another example, if the promotion diversity score of the emailcommunication channel indicates that the consumer has not purchased adiverse mix of promotions that have been viewed from emails received bythe consumer via the email communication channel, the analytical model104 may promote promotion diversity in another communication channel(e.g., webpage communication channel) by increasing the promotiondiversity in the other communication channel. In the case of the webpagecommunication channel, the promotion diversity in the webpagecommunication channel may be increased by presenting more promotionsfrom promotion categories, sub-categories, DTs or other definablepromotion attribute that the consumer is found to have lacked in hispast purchasing history.

In this way, promoting promotion diversity in a first communicationchannel in order to make up for the lack of promotion diversity in asecond communication channel may be accomplished by ensuring morepromotions across promotion categories, sub-categories, DTs or otherdefinable promotion attribute that are found to be lacking in the secondcommunication channel will be presented to the consumer via the firstcommunication channel.

Although not illustrated in FIG. 5, the promotion diversity score may beutilized to more simply promote diversity within a given communicationchannel.

For instance, for a given communication channel, the correspondingpromotion diversity score may be found to be low. The low promotiondiversity score indicates a low level of promotion diversity acrosspromotion categories, sub-categories, DTs or other definable promotionattribute in the given communication channel. In such a case, theanalytical model 104 may reference the low promotion diversity score anddetermine that the consumer should be presented with more promotionsfrom promotion categories, sub-categories, DTs or other definablepromotion attributes, from which the low promotion diversity scoreindicates the consumer has been lacking. Then the analytical model 104may correspondingly present the consumer with more presentations frompromotion categories, sub-categories, DTs or other definable promotionattribute, that the low promotion diversity score indicates the consumerhas been lacking from. The promotions may be presented to the consumervia an electronic correspondence corresponding to the givencommunication channel, or alternatively an electronic correspondencecorresponding to one of the other communication channels.

In the case of a communication channel having a low promotion diversityscore based on the consumer's past promotion purchasing history, theanalytical model 104 may interpret this in two ways. The low promotiondiversity score may indicate the narrow distribution of promotionsacross different promotion categories, sub-categories, DTs or otherdefinable promotion attributes from which the consumer has showninterest in purchases promotions from. For instance, the consumer's pastpurchasing history may indicate the consumer has only purchasedpromotions from the restaurant and spa promotion categories.

Then according to a first embodiment, the analytical model 104 mayinterpret the low promotion diversity score based on the consumer's pastpurchasing history as an indication the consumer is only interested inpurchasing promotions from the narrow distribution of promotioncategories, sub-categories, DTs or other definable promotion attributeswithin the given communication channel. Therefore the analytical model104 may proceed to promote the presentation of promotions from thenarrow distribution of promotions as indicated by the low promotiondiversity score. For instance, if the low promotion diversity scoreindicates the consumer has only purchased promotions from the restaurantpromotion category, the analytical model 104 may continue todisproportionately promote restaurant promotions in future presentationsof promotions to the consumer via the given communication channel. Inaddition or alternatively, the analytical model 104 may continue todisproportionately promote restaurant promotions in future presentationsof promotions to the consumer via other communication channels. Theanalytical model 104 may promote the promotions by presenting thesepromotions at a higher rate than other promotions.

In a second embodiment, the analytical model 104 may interpret the lowpromotion diversity score based on the consumer's past purchasinghistory as an indication that the consumer needs to be presented with amore diverse mix of promotions within the given communication channel.So unlike the first embodiment where the analytical model 104 promotesthe same type of promotions the consumer has shown a narrow interest inbased on past purchasing history, according to the second embodiment theanalytical model 104 will promote promotions the consumer has not shownan interest in based on the consumer's past purchasing history. Forinstance if the low promotion diversity score indicates the consumer hasnot purchased promotions from the travel promotion category, theanalytical model 104 may being to disproportionately promote travelpromotions in future presentations of promotions to the consumer via thegiven communication channel. In addition or alternatively, theanalytical model 104 may being to disproportionately promote travelpromotions in future presentations of promotions to the consumer viaanother communication channel. The analytical model 104 may promote thepromotions by presenting these promotions at a higher rate than otherpromotions.

A high promotion diversity score indicates the consumer has purchased,viewed, or been presented with a diverse mix of promotions from acrossdifferent promotion categories, sub-categories, DTs or other definablepromotion attributes in the respective communication channel. In thecase of a communication channel having a high promotion diversity score,the analytical model 104 may interpret the high promotion diversityscore as an indication the consumer has purchased, viewed, or beenpresented with a diverse mix of promotions and further diversity is notrequired in the respective communication channel.

FIG. 6 illustrates a general computer system 600, programmable to be aspecific computer system 600, which can represent any server, computeror component, such as consumer 1 (124), consumer N (126), merchant 1(118), merchant M (120), and promotion offering system 102. The computersystem 600 may include an ordered listing of a set of instructions 602that may be executed to cause the computer system 600 to perform any oneor more of the methods or computer-based functions disclosed herein. Thecomputer system 600 can operate as a stand-alone device or can beconnected, e.g., using the network 122, to other computer systems orperipheral devices.

In a networked deployment, the computer system 600 can operate in thecapacity of a server or as a client-user computer in a server-clientuser network environment, or as a peer computer system in a peer-to-peer(or distributed) network environment. The computer system 600 may alsobe implemented as or incorporated into various devices, such as apersonal computer or a mobile computing device capable of executing aset of instructions 602 that specify actions to be taken by thatmachine, including and not limited to, accessing the Internet or Webthrough any form of browser. Further, each of the systems described caninclude any collection of sub-systems that individually or jointlyexecute a set, or multiple sets, of instructions to perform one or morecomputer functions.

The computer system 600 can include a memory 603 on a bus 610 forcommunicating information. Code operable to cause the computer system toperform any of the acts or operations described herein can be stored inthe memory 603. The memory 603 may be a random-access memory, read-onlymemory, programmable memory, hard disk drive or any other type ofvolatile or non-volatile memory or storage device.

The computer system 600 can include a processor 601, such as a centralprocessing unit (CPU) and/or a graphics processing unit (GPU). Theprocessor 601 may include one or more general processors, digital signalprocessors, application specific integrated circuits, field programmablegate arrays, digital circuits, optical circuits, analog circuits,combinations thereof, or other now known or later-developed devices foranalyzing and processing data. The processor 601 may implement the setof instructions 602 or other software program, such as manuallyprogrammed or computer-generated code for implementing logicalfunctions. The logical function or any system element described can,among other functions, process and convert an analog data source such asan analog electrical, audio, or video signal, or a combination thereof,to a digital data source for audio-visual purposes or other digitalprocessing purposes such as for compatibility for computer processing.

The computer system 600 can also include a disk or optical drive unit604. The disk drive unit 604 may include a computer-readable medium 605in which one or more sets of instructions 602, e.g., software, may beembedded. Further, the instructions 602 may perform one or more of theoperations as described herein. The instructions 602 may residecompletely, or at least partially, within the memory 603 or within theprocessor 601 during execution by the computer system 600. Accordingly,the databases 110, 112, 114, or 116 may be stored in the memory 603 orthe disk unit 604.

The memory 603 and the processor 601 also may include computer-readablemedia as discussed above. A “computer-readable medium,”“computer-readable storage medium,” “machine readable medium,”“propagated-signal medium,” or “signal-bearing medium” may include anydevice that has, stores, communicates, propagates, or transportssoftware for use by or in connection with an instruction executablesystem, apparatus, or device. The machine-readable medium mayselectively be, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical,electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device,or propagation medium.

Additionally, the computer system 600 may include an input device 607,such as a keyboard or mouse, configured for a user to interact with anyof the components of system 600. It may further include a display 606,such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), a cathode ray tube (CRT), or anyother display suitable for conveying information. The display 606 mayact as an interface for the user to see the functioning of the processor601, or specifically as an interface with the software stored in thememory 603 or the drive unit 604.

The computer system 600 may include a communication interface 608 thatenables communications via the communications network 122. The network122 may include wired networks, wireless networks, or combinationsthereof. The communication interface 608 network may enablecommunications via any number of communication standards, such as802.11, 802.17, 802.20, WiMax, 802.15.4, cellular telephone standards,or other communication standards, as discussed above. Simply because oneof these standards is listed does not mean any one is preferred.

Further, the promotion offering system 102, as depicted in FIG. 1 maycomprise one computer system or multiple computer systems. Further, theflow diagrams illustrated in the Figures may use computer readableinstructions that are executed by one or more processors in order toimplement the functionality disclosed.

The present disclosure contemplates a computer-readable medium thatincludes instructions or receives and executes instructions responsiveto a propagated signal, so that a device connected to a network cancommunicate voice, video, audio, images or any other data over thenetwork. Further, the instructions can be transmitted or received overthe network via a communication interface. The communication interfacecan be a part of the processor or can be a separate component. Thecommunication interface can be created in software or can be a physicalconnection in hardware. The communication interface can be configured toconnect with a network, external media, the display, or any othercomponents in system, or combinations thereof. The connection with thenetwork can be a physical connection, such as a wired Ethernetconnection or can be established wirelessly as discussed below. In thecase of a service provider server, the service provider server cancommunicate with users through the communication interface.

The computer-readable medium can be a single medium, or thecomputer-readable medium can be a single medium or multiple media, suchas a centralized or distributed database, or associated caches andservers that store one or more sets of instructions. The term“computer-readable medium” can also include any medium that can becapable of storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions forexecution by a processor or that can cause a computer system to performany one or more of the methods or operations disclosed herein.

The computer-readable medium can include a solid-state memory such as amemory card or other package that houses one or more non-volatileread-only memories. The computer-readable medium also may be a randomaccess memory or other volatile re-writable memory. Additionally, thecomputer-readable medium may include a magneto-optical or opticalmedium, such as a disk or tapes or other storage device to capturecarrier wave signals such as a signal communicated over a transmissionmedium. A digital file attachment to an email or other self-containedinformation archive or set of archives may be considered a distributionmedium that may be a tangible storage medium. The computer-readablemedium is preferably a tangible storage medium. Accordingly, thedisclosure may be considered to include any one or more of acomputer-readable medium or a distribution medium and other equivalentsand successor media, in which data or instructions can be stored.

Alternatively or in addition, dedicated hardware implementations, suchas application specific integrated circuits, programmable logic arraysand other hardware devices, may be constructed to implement one or moreof the methods described herein. Applications that may include theapparatus and systems of various embodiments may broadly include avariety of electronic and computer systems. One or more embodimentsdescribed herein may implement functions using two or more specificinterconnected hardware modules or devices with related control and datasignals that may be communicated between and through the modules, or asportions of an application-specific integrated circuit. Accordingly, thepresent system may encompass software, firmware, and hardwareimplementations.

The methods described herein may be implemented by software programsexecutable by a computer system. Further, implementations may includedistributed processing, component/object distributed processing, andparallel processing. Alternatively or in addition, virtual computersystem processing may be constructed to implement one or more of themethods or functionality as described herein.

Although components and functions are described that may be implementedin particular embodiments with reference to particular standards andprotocols, the components and functions are not limited to suchstandards and protocols. For example, standards for Internet and otherpacket switched network transmission (e.g., TCP/IP, UDP/IP, HTML, andHTTP) represent examples of the state of the art. Such standards areperiodically superseded by faster or more efficient equivalents havingessentially the same functions. Accordingly, replacement standards andprotocols having the same or similar functions as those disclosed hereinare considered equivalents thereof.

The illustrations described herein are intended to provide a generalunderstanding of the structure of various embodiments. The illustrationsare not intended to serve as a complete description of all of theelements and features of apparatus, processors, and systems that utilizethe structures or methods described herein. Many other embodiments canbe apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the disclosure.Other embodiments can be utilized and derived from the disclosure, suchthat structural and logical substitutions and changes can be madewithout departing from the scope of the disclosure. Additionally, theillustrations are merely representational and cannot be drawn to scale.Certain proportions within the illustrations may be exaggerated, whileother proportions may be minimized. Accordingly, the disclosure and thefigures are to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.

The above disclosed subject matter is to be considered illustrative, andnot restrictive, and the appended claims are intended to cover all suchmodifications, enhancements, and other embodiments, which fall withinthe true spirit and scope of the description. Thus, to the maximumextent allowed by law, the scope is to be determined by the broadestpermissible interpretation of the following claims and theirequivalents, and shall not be restricted or limited by the foregoingdetailed description.

1.-22. (canceled)
 23. A method comprising: accessing, via a processorand from a historical data database, each of one or more promotionsincluded in a previously-sent electronic correspondence; accessing, viathe processor from a promotion programs database, multiple promotionscontemplated for inclusion in a subsequent electronic correspondence;comparing, via the processor, taxonomy classifications of at least oneof the promotions in the previously-sent electronic correspondence andat least one of the multiple promotions contemplated for inclusion inthe subsequent electronic correspondence; determining whether the atleast one of the promotions in the previously-sent electroniccorrespondence and the at least one of the multiple promotions have asame taxonomy classification; determining, via the processor, to removethe at least one of the multiple promotions having the same taxonomyclassification as the at least one the promotions in the previously-sentelectronic correspondence; generating, via the processor, the subsequentelectronic correspondence, the subsequent electronic correspondencecomprising each remaining promotion of the multiple promotionscontemplated for inclusion; and transmitting the subsequent electroniccorrespondence.
 24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:determining that an amount of time that has elapsed since thepreviously-sent electronic correspondence was transmitted meets apredetermined threshold.
 25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:in response to determining that the amount of time that has elapsedsince the previously-sent electronic correspondence was transmittedfails to meet the predetermined threshold, removing the at least one ofthe multiple promotions from consideration for inclusion in thesubsequent electronic communication.
 26. The method of claim 25, whereinthe predetermined amount of time is dependent on the category orsubcategory.
 27. The method of claim 23, wherein comparing the taxonomyclassification comprises determining whether one or both of a categoryand a subcategory is identical as one or both of the category and thesubcategory.
 28. The method of claim 23, further comprising: in responseto determining that the at least one of the promotions in thepreviously-sent electronic correspondence and the at least one of themultiple promotions have the same taxonomy classification, removing theat least one of the multiple promotions from consideration for inclusionin the subsequent electronic communication.
 29. The method of claim 23,further comprising: utilizing an analytical model to determine aposition within the subsequent electronic correspondence to assign eachremaining promotion of the multiple promotions contemplated forinclusion, wherein the subsequent electronic correspondence includes Nnumber of positions for promotions.
 30. A computer program product, thecomputer program product comprising at least one non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium having computer-executable program codeinstructions stored therein, the computer-executable program codeinstructions comprising program code instructions for: accessing, via aprocessor and from a historical data database, each of one or morepromotions included in a previously-sent electronic correspondence;accessing, via the processor from a promotion programs database,multiple promotions contemplated for inclusion in a subsequentelectronic correspondence; comparing, via the processor, taxonomyclassifications of at least one of the promotions in the previously-sentelectronic correspondence and at least one of the multiple promotionscontemplated for inclusion in the subsequent electronic correspondence;determining whether the at least one of the promotions in thepreviously-sent electronic correspondence and the at least one of themultiple promotions have a same taxonomy classification; determining,via the processor, to remove the at least one of the multiple promotionshaving the same taxonomy classification as the at least one thepromotions in the previously-sent electronic correspondence; generating,via the processor, the subsequent electronic correspondence, thesubsequent electronic correspondence comprising each remaining promotionof the multiple promotions contemplated for inclusion; and transmittingthe subsequent electronic correspondence.
 31. The computer programproduct according to claim 30, wherein the computer-executable programcode instructions further comprise program code instructions for:determining that an amount of time that has elapsed since thepreviously-sent electronic correspondence was transmitted meets apredetermined threshold.
 32. The computer program product according toclaim 31, wherein the computer-executable program code instructionsfurther comprise program code instructions for: in response todetermining that the amount of time that has elapsed since thepreviously-sent electronic correspondence was transmitted fails to meetthe predetermined threshold, removing the at least one of the multiplepromotions from consideration for inclusion in the subsequent electroniccommunication.
 33. The computer program product according to claim 30,wherein the predetermined amount of time is dependent on the category orsubcategory.
 34. The computer program product according to claim 30,wherein comparing the taxonomy classification comprises determiningwhether one or both of a category and a subcategory is identical as oneor both of the category and the subcategory.
 35. The computer programproduct according to claim 30, wherein the computer-executable programcode instructions further comprise program code instructions for: inresponse to determining that the at least one of the promotions in thepreviously-sent electronic correspondence and the at least one of themultiple promotions have the same taxonomy classification, removing theat least one of the multiple promotions from consideration for inclusionin the subsequent electronic communication.
 36. The computer programproduct according to claim 30, wherein the computer-executable programcode instructions further comprise program code instructions for:utilizing an analytical model to determine a position within thesubsequent electronic correspondence to assign each remaining promotionof the multiple promotions contemplated for inclusion, wherein thesubsequent electronic correspondence includes N number of positions forpromotions.
 37. An apparatus, the apparatus comprising at least oneprocessor and at least one memory including computer program code, theat least one memory and the computer program code configured to, withthe processor, cause the apparatus to at least: access, via the at leastone processor and from a historical data database, each of one or morepromotions included in a previously-sent electronic correspondence;access, via the at least one processor from a promotion programsdatabase, multiple promotions contemplated for inclusion in a subsequentelectronic correspondence; compare, via the at least one processor,taxonomy classifications of at least one of the promotions in thepreviously-sent electronic correspondence and at least one of themultiple promotions contemplated for inclusion in the subsequentelectronic correspondence; determine whether the at least one of thepromotions in the previously-sent electronic correspondence and the atleast one of the multiple promotions have a same taxonomyclassification; determine, via the at least one processor, to remove theat least one of the multiple promotions having the same taxonomyclassification as the at least one the promotions in the previously-sentelectronic correspondence; generate, via the at least one processor, thesubsequent electronic correspondence, the subsequent electroniccorrespondence comprising each remaining promotion of the multiplepromotions contemplated for inclusion; and transmit the subsequentelectronic correspondence.
 38. The apparatus according to claim 37,wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code arefurther configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus for:determine that an amount of time that has elapsed since thepreviously-sent electronic correspondence was transmitted meets apredetermined threshold.
 39. The apparatus according to claim 38,wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code arefurther configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus for: inresponse to determining that the amount of time that has elapsed sincethe previously-sent electronic correspondence was transmitted fails tomeet the predetermined threshold, remove the at least one of themultiple promotions from consideration for inclusion in the subsequentelectronic communication.
 40. The apparatus according to claim 37,wherein the predetermined amount of time is dependent on the category orsubcategory.
 41. The apparatus according to claim 37, wherein comparingthe taxonomy classification comprises determining whether one or both ofa category and a subcategory is identical as one or both of the categoryand the subcategory.
 42. The apparatus according to claim 37, whereinthe at least one memory and the computer program code are furtherconfigured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus for: in responseto determining that the at least one of the promotions in thepreviously-sent electronic correspondence and the at least one of themultiple promotions have the same taxonomy classification, remove the atleast one of the multiple promotions from consideration for inclusion inthe subsequent electronic communication.
 43. The apparatus according toclaim 37, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program codeare further configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus for:utilize an analytical model to determine a position within thesubsequent electronic correspondence to assign each remaining promotionof the multiple promotions contemplated for inclusion, wherein thesubsequent electronic correspondence includes N number of positions forpromotions.